port discovery

we went to Port Discovery in Baltimore, MD last night. it's right in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore.

i think joshua's highlight of the night was driving INTO the city and SEEING the Ravens stadium on our left! he couldn't believe it! {they play this weekend for the AFC Championship. they aren't "our" team. but both rebekah and joshua have friends that love them so they are excited about it.}

anyways. we made it there fine. not too much traffic.

i made the kids leave their coats in the car and run a couple blocks {it was 32 degrees out} to the museum. bailey cried. everyone else toughed it out.

overall, we loved the museum. it was a hit. had tons to do. not too big, not too small. whoever planned it out definitely did their homework on "kids". there were bathrooms EVERYwhere.

there was a huge jungle gym thing in the middle. that was 3 stories high. then there were rooms around it on each of the 3 levels that had different themes.

here is the grocery store room:

loading up his basket.

he thought he hit the jackpot. until i told him there was no food in it. that it was just to "pretend" and play with. his face was priceless. and kind of sad.

levi did awesome. sometimes he stayed in the stroller, sometimes i let him get out. and he did GREAT going back and forth.

the big jungle gym thing in the middle

the "water room". you will NOT leave dry. which will make the sprint back to the car without your coats on VERY cold...

i so enjoyed watching all my kids have fun.

but the evening REALLY turned into a study of lincoln for me. i kind of just stood back and observed him. with one of my other kids (for example - bailey) it's pretty obvious that they belong to me. but with lincoln, it takes a little longer to figure out who he belongs to :-) i did have to step in and correct some of his behavior. but i really tried to just let him be and not be all over him {i'm pretty sure he's just as sick of it as i am!}

a couple conclusions:
*he NEVER, not ONCE walked away and went into his "orphan mode" where he wanders off and doesn't look back. he always was with us and was very aware of where i was.
*he touches EVERYTHING! in this environment, it was fine. i didn't ONCE say, "lincoln, no touch." which i say about a thousand times a day. everything there was "ok" to be touched. but so much of what he touched, none of the other kids would even THINK about touching. or trying to pull of the wall. or licking (yes, he did.) i was hoping his glasses would help him touch less. so far, he seems to touch MORE - because things aren't just blobs, he can see every DETAIL!
*and one last observation. lincoln RULED that orphanage in rwanda. watching him walk into each room of the museum and take over immediately was amazing to watch. most kids walked in and kind of took it in for a minute or so, to get their bearings. then they would engage in something. not lincoln. he walked in with that confident walk of his and TOOK OVER. grabbed. cut in line. whatever to get what he wanted that moment. {this is where i stepped in a number of times...} wow. i feel like i need to apologize to those of you with children from HOH. i'm sorry for anything he did to your kids there!

this was so cool! you stand in the middle of a circle - like the size of a hula hoop. and then you pull it up and it's a BUBBLE! surrounding you!

this was super fun. a diner.

the dinner they made me :-)

joshua's second favorite part (after the stadium sighting). a soccer field. he was the goalie. i loved the confidence he had to just go in there with all these kids he didn't know!

we left a few minutes before they closed. i could feel myself getting that shaky feeling.  i hadn't eaten much because i didn't want my stomach to HURT while we were there. but it's a tricky balance between that and going too long without eating and getting all shaky from low blood sugar. i was on borrowed time and had to get out of there and get some food! it was probably better anyways, to leave before the rest of the museum!

the weather held off until after we got home! it was a VERY successful evening! they all had fun. there were no surprises. and dinner (nutrigrain bars and a banana) was eaten and trash thrown away with no mess in the house! (it's the little things...) i'm very glad we did it!